Vol.3 Ch.1: An Encounter

I am Yui Shigure, an ordinary college student from Japan. As I was coming back from my university, I lost consciousness. When I opened my eyes, there was... a burning village...

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[12th May, 20XX]

Early in the morning in a small apartment, a young girl wakes up from her bed. She gets changed and takes a bottle of milk out of the fridge and sits in the living watching her phone. As she surfers through the websites, one catches her attention: Bell of battlecruiser sunk 75 years ago in Royal Navy's biggest ever disaster retrieved from the seabed by Microsoft founder is formally unveiled by Princess Royal. She smiles and said, "Quite a relief, at least the HMS Hood still has an undamaged wreckage in the sea."

After putting on her sandals, she leaves her apartment, on her way to a lecture. While walking, she sighs, "To think that I dreamt of being put onto a guillotine for execution, that makes my bones chilled."

In the noon, during a break in the University of Tsukuba, the girl is writing some notes in her notebook in a lecture hall as she thinks along. "German Victoria Era is not a bad timeline," she thought. "If I were to live in that era, it's possible I could experience life during the Industrial Revolution..."

Then, one of her classmates sits next to her, "Yui, still taking some imaginative notes?"

"Yeah, just some of my hobbies," Yui replies.

Yui Shigure; a 20 years old college student studying World History degree at the University of Tsukuba. Although her results are not too bad, she is most interested in civilization and military histories of the past.

In about five minutes, a professor enters the hall and announces, "Okay, everyone. Just to let you know that the second period is cancelled, so you are all free to go." The whole class cheered as they heard the news.

Before leaving, Yui's friends would invite her to a karaoke, but she kindly refused. It could be the best time to gather with her friends and socialize, but she was rushing to a bookstore for a limited encyclopedia sale and, obviously, didn't want to miss out on it.

"Here are the books you pre-ordered, thank you for buying," the shopkeeper replies and packs up the books in a bag. Upon leaving, her heart is light as a feather.

"Just in time to pick up the books since they are the latest edition on all kind of histories about the world," Yui smiles. Then suddenly, a mysterious rain droplet falls in front of her.

"Hmm? Is it raining?" At the very moment, she looks into the sky, she loses consciousness as a mist of darkness begins to envelop her.

-^-^-^-

...

"Wake up..."

Yui hears the sound of a woman through the void She tries to open her eyes as her consciousness seems has been regained by herself. "M... Mother?" As she mumbles, she tries to sit up and is stunned upon looking around.

Around her is just pure white brightness. Filled with curiosity, Yui sees that there is a small tea table in front of her and, by the table, sat . . . a woman.

"Sorry to summon you so suddenly, but I will explain the situation to you," the lady replied.

Yui doesn't scream or frighten by looking on the lady's appearance. Instead, she asks her politely, "Are you... a goddess from the Scandinavian Region?"

The lady giggles, "Haha, no I am not from your world, but good guess." Then, she introduces herself, "I am Ciri, Goddess of Life."

While chatting, Ciri explains, "The reason I summoned you is that the world I created is in grave danger. My people are being attacked and hunted by a totalitarian empire full of humans."

While listening, Yui asks, "Is . . . is it possible that your people are demi-humans?"

"Yes, indeed," Ciri replied, nodding slightly.

Ciri pulls up a piece of paper from the table she sat at. Yui gazed at it and instantly recognized what it was; a map. Instead of seeing seven familiar continents, however, Yui saw an unknown continent of various landmasses and peninsulas, which was further composed of unknown kingdoms.

However, while the shape of it confused her initially, upon taking a second look, she receives a certain feeling of familiarity with it, as if she had seen it before some time long ago.

"I tried to search for many suitable candidates to save my world, but most of them didn't reach my expectations . . ." Ciri sighed then turns to Yui, "After searching for a hundred years, I have finally found the person suitable to be the saviour of my land . . . and that person . . . is you."

After a moment of stunned silence, Yui asks, "Why me? I'm just an ordinary college student with no special talent, how can I be the chosen one to save your world?"

Ciri smiles and touches her hair, "You do. With your imaginative mind and love of history and art, I believe you can make good use of these talents in my world."

With a deep breath, Yui makes her decision, "Very well, Goddess Ciri, I have made my choice. I will save your world with my very best."

Ciri feels relief in her heart. Before sending Yui, she adds, "Before you go, I will give my blessing to you."

In that very moment, Ciri places her right hand on Yui's forehead and says, "In my name, from now on, your name will be remembered by my people as Eunomia, the Daughter of Ciri with Victoria as your mortal name. You shall have my power to save the continent of El Zaberina as its saviour."

After those fateful words, bright lights suddenly shine all over Victoria and she disappears within the span of a second.

After the lights disappeared, she finds herself in front of a stone arched gate. Looking down to examine her appearance, she is now wearing an ancient white Roman tunic with a light green palla around her. However, she's pulled out of the examination when she suddenly hears a loud scream. The moment she looks up, a burning village appears in her sight, spitting great, blacks clouds of smoke into the sky and emanating a blazing inferno whose heat licked her skin even from that distance.

Victoria sees that Roman-like soldiers are capturing people and pushing them into an iron cage on a large carriage and burning their houses with fanatic fervour. She is horrified by the sight.

A young girl is pushed onto the ground by a soldier holding a spear, whose pointy end had been scraped around its edges and covered in a thin layer of crimson blood. The young girl lets out a terrified cry for help as she attempts to scramble away.

Without thinking, Victoria grabs a large stone on the ground and rushes towards the girl and the man. The soldier notices Victoria approaching her far too late and she stops the swing of the soldier's spear by throwing the hefty rock at him.

He lets out a cry of pain, cut off by the rock hitting his face, tumbles down, dropping the spear in his hand and groans upon hitting the ground. Thinking quickly, she picks up his spear and jerks it forward at the man's chest with all her strength. The spear goes through his heart and out his back, piercing the dirt. In the few moments he had left, the man looked up at his killer, gargling blood from out of his mouth. He places his hands on the body of the spear and begins to pull, trying to get it out, but he has already lost too much energy.

After realizing the futility of his actions, the man simply stares dead into the eyes of his killer. The blood slowly stops dripping out of his mouth. His eyes lose all traces of life and his hands drop down to his side.

Victoria recoils, losing her energy temporarily at the notion that she has just taken someone's life, but, still fueled by her overpowering will to save and help, tries to pull the spear out of the man's chest. She presses her foot on the dead man's leg and pulls with all of her might.

It succeeds, but, having put a bit too much effort into it, Victoria falls down on her ass. She springs back up, holding a bloody, slightly dulled spear in hand. As she looks at her surroundings, she sees that she is now surrounded by a group of soldiers.

The young girl whose life Victoria had just saved stood up and nervously tugged her saviour's right arm. Victoria hesitated, grimaced, and then held up her spear as the men began their charge.